Chapter 1. Start hereYou can solve many problems without outside assistance by following thetroubleshooting procedures in this Problem Determination and Service Guide andon the IBM Web site. This document describes the diagnostic tests that you canperform, troubleshooting procedures, and explanations of error messages and errorcodes. The documentation that comes with your operating system and softwarealso contains troubleshooting information.Diagnosing a problemBefore you contact IBM or an approved warranty service provider, follow theseprocedures in the order in which they are presented to diagnose a problem withyour server:1. Determine what has changed.Determine whether any of the following items were added, removed, replaced,or updated before the problem occurred:v IBM System x Server Firmware (server firmware)v Device driversv Firmwarev Hardware componentsv SoftwareIf possible, return the server to the condition it was in before the problemoccurred.2. Collect data.Thorough data collection is necessary for diagnosing hardware and softwareproblems.a. Document error codes and system-board LEDs.v System error codes: See “POST error codes” on page 26 for informationabout a specific error code.v See “System-board LEDs” on page 19 for the location of thesystem-board LEDs.v Software or operating-system error codes: See the documentation forthe software or operating system for information about a specific errorcode. See the manufacturer's Web site for documentation.b. Collect system data.Run the Dynamic System Analysis (DSA) diagnostics program to collectinformation about the hardware, firmware, software, and operating system.Have this information available when you contact IBM or an approvedwarranty service provider. See “Running the diagnostic programs” on page74 for the instructions to run the DSA program.If you need to download the latest version of DSA, go tohttp://www.ibm.com/systems/support/supportsite.wss/docdisplay?brandind=5000008&lndocid=SERV-DSA or complete thefollowing steps.Note: Changes are made periodically to the IBM Web site. The actualprocedure might vary slightly from what is described in this document.1) Go to http://www.ibm.com/systems/support/.2) Under Product support, click System x.© Copyright IBM Corp. 2011 1
